


i'll set us both on fire just to hear you scream

by nonbinarywithaknife (littleboxes)



Series: dimension 20 [62]
Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Tragedy, Bad Ending, Campaign 05: A Crown of Candy, Dark, Gen, Grief, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:00:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25796287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/nonbinarywithaknife
Summary: ...it is not good. It is not better. But it could be, itcould be, and thecould be, themaybe someday, theone dayand theeventuallyfills the air where the tenseness was, and the battle ends, truly.The story doesn't end there, of course not, but it was always a story about fear and vulnerability and clinging tosomedayin spite ofnow.That story ends.These stories, though…
Relationships: Saccharina Frostwhip & Ruby Rocks
Series: dimension 20 [62]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706107
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28





	i'll set us both on fire just to hear you scream

Ruby looks at Saccharina and cares and Saccharina looks at Ruby and cares and it is raw and tense and fraying, fraying… but it holds. It stays. They are raw and tense and vulnerable but as they look into eyes so very similar to their own their muscles relax and the tension breaks and it is not good. It is not better. But it could be, it _could be_ , and the _could be_ , the _maybe someday_ , the _one day_ and the _eventually_ fills the air where the tenseness was, and the battle ends, truly.

The story doesn't end there, of course not, but it was always a story about fear and vulnerability and clinging to _someday_ in spite of _now_.

That story ends. 

This story, though…

**i.**

In this story Ruby looks at Saccharina, looks at Saccharina, looks at _Saccharina-_

Port Syrup and the air is silent and heavy and smells of smoke still and the ground is black and faintly warm still, the homes are wooden skeletons whose wooden skin has all burnt away, still, the bodies don't lie in the streets but she sees their silhouettes in the ash, still- 

She didn't do it but Ruby is standing in ashes that fall in Saccharina's name-

Ruby looks at Saccharina and she is standing on a cliffside and the cold yawning emptiness a few feet away has nothing on the cavern in her chest where her heart used to beat and,

she calls out to Saccharina and she turns and Ruby sees,

(If I slide the blade across her throat the jagged lines would spread and her artery would spray and oh how _satisfying_ to see the royal brat brought low, oh the sugar sweet blood would lie sticky on my hands and Swiftie would laugh and laugh and laugh-) 

(Both hands on the grip of her axe, angle it- there, ready to swing into her shoulder, get in close and break her bow, crush her hands to take out the magic, Gooey isn't fast but she hits hard, just one good hit to her shoulders, shatter the bone and take her out-) 

(Just one step to the side, not too far from his queen but far enough to reach out a hand, stick out a leg, angle his shoulders so he can shift his weight and anchor his feet, one good throw and the problem is halfway down a mountain the fast way-)

Ruby sees (one jump, two, slide the blade across her tender throat) (one hit to shatter the bone another to slice the muscle, already halfway to incapacitated) (one step away grab, lift, toss, problem solved) and Saccharina at their side, Saccharina at their front, Saccharina leading them-

_We will do what fate does not._

Ruby looks at Saccharina and her home is so _close_ and the crown is so _close_ and she _wants_ it (does she? what do you want, little one?) wants it back on her pops' head (wants normal again) (what is normal?) (do you want normal or do you want Jet?) (this is not what Jet would have wanted)

When she looks at Saccharina her gaze is raw and raw and _raw_ and she considers vulnerability for as long as it takes to remember her sister's body and she sees in Saccharina not an olive branch but a soft underbelly, exposed, and she lifts her bow and there is a thwip and then another and another, and her aim is as true as it's ever been and Saccharina falls, ignominious, irrelevant, to the ground. 

It's what she wants (is it? do you feel good? _have you won yet?_ ) but the battle isn't done yet and Cinnamon sees the body of the one that was _his_ and he bellows and screams and it’s almost mournful, almost more than _you have taken mine from me_ and the battle isn't done, yet.

The battle isn't won yet, Ruby looks at the body and thinks, am I happy, yet? 

Cinnamon screams and Theo is in the distance, staring at the scene in horror and Liam can't be a seed guy, not yet, his queen is dead on the ground, Amethar is king and it's exactly what he wanted and why does he feel sick, yet, the battle isn't done isn't done will not be done for some time, yet.

**ii.**

In this story Saccharina looks at Ruby, looks at Ruby, looks at Ruby-

 _I had a sister and she’s dead you will never be her, so stop_ trying _, already!_

_You can be my sister or my queen, but you cannot be both._

Looks at Ruby and hears, _we just don't have any more love to give,_ hears a crown clattering on the stone in front of her and _this isn’t how it’s supposed to go_ -

No more love, no more love but when was there ever _any_ , no more love but plenty of cold shoulders, no more love but plenty of scorn, no love, no forgiveness no _more_. 

_...or maybe, from another kind of arrow..._

Saccharina has tried and tried and _tried_ , she has begged and pleaded for _even a fragment_ of the love they have already professed to have run dry of, she has carved forgiveness out of herself until she scraped against her _ribs_ for them, even as she hands their home to them on a silver platter they plot her _death_ and no forgiveness, no love, no _more_. 

_Then I choose to be your queen._

She thinks about holding Cinnamon and feeling the hot-sweet snout against her cheek and wide brown eyes that are full of adoration, of love without expectation, and she thinks about Theobald and _I cannot express to you how much I relate to that_ and _they didn't see fit to share it with me either_ and _you have my sword, whether or not you wear the crown of Candia_ and Saccharina _knows_ , now, what she has been missing and Saccharina isn’t _missing it anymore_ and Saccharina cannot bring the knife down to carve away any more _forgiveness_ from her heart, and when she looks at Ruby and sees softness and pause, she does not fall for the sugar-glazed trap again, she feels Cinnamon’s breath on her neck and she _strikes_.

She screams in tandem with her winged destruction, and it feels like freedom (feels like a brand pressed white-hot to her chest) and as they roar it’s an exultation (it’s a screaming lamentation and it burns her throat) and she raises the Winterscoop and Cinnamon’s wings darken the sky, and fire rages and ice crackles like lightning and Ruby has no time to scream before the elements are upon her.

She can almost hear her marauders slaughtering their way through the castle even as the white flags are raised and drenched red (this is wrong this is all wrong it _wasn’t supposed to be like this_ ), and Theo is in the distance, staring at the scene in horror and Liam can't be a seed guy, not yet, as his queen marches forward unto war.

Amethar has won the battle ( _what is the last part of my title?_ ) but not the war (Cinnamon _screams_ ) and this is not Saccharina's home but it is _hers_ and she will _take_ it (like she's had to take _everything_ ) and she’ll do it gladly because she has a _family_ at her back (is this what family is? the sound of screams and boots on ash? it must be, because Saccharina has never known it to be anything else.) 

**Author's Note:**

> :D


End file.
